Saturday, December 16, 2006

Poker thoughts

I did play a couple of mtt's last night but spent most of my time at the cash tables.I bought in directly to Full Tilts $15k gtd ( $24+2) and didn't pick up a playable hand until after the first break when I went all in with my remaining 860 in chips with AdKd only to be called by 88 and QQ.No help from the board and IPHTNW.( I place head through nearest window).AK was also the hand that sent me out of Laddys late night ( $10) crapshoot,this time to 55.Hmmm I think I'd rather have gone out with a badbeat so at least I could say I was favourite when the money went in...

The cash tables were swingy as usual and I finished up winning a little overall for my nights work but I'm probably still down about $70 since last Sundays stats update.I stuck to a fairly tight game for most of the night and used my Poker Indicator and Pokertracker with GT+ to help with marginal decisions.

I'm currently rereading Super Systems No Limit section but while I can take bits and pieces of Doyles style and use them ,I don't see me ever being as loose and aggressive as pokers greatest ever player.The LAG ( loose ag)style certainly seems a lot sexier than simply waiting for good hands and playing those hands hard but I think having the discipline and patience to stick to a TA ( tight aggressive) game can be very demanding indeed, especially if your on a downswing, and those long awaited hands get busted time and time again.On top of that you have to deal with watching what can seem like almost every folded hand hitting a monster flop, and the subsequent huge pot sliding over the virtual felt to some undeserving fish.

Another wee topic I'd like to cover today is calling an all in bet from a shortstack during sng's.If there are two callers it seems to be the accepted wisdom to check it down to showdown unless someone hits the board and if one player bets v the all in player without hitting the board then accusations of donkeydom and fishy play abound in the chat box.Two points.If the blinds are low then I'm happy to go along with thegeneral consensus and will sometimes call with marginal type hands because if I hit anything with my J9 sooted ( for example) and I bet, that will usually mean the other villian folds leaving me HU with the all in shorty.

I will sometimes bet out though with very little.An example would be a hand I played the other night at a $5 turbo.The blinds were 200/400,the shortstack was all in for 600 and I chose to call from the small blind with KQ.I'd already paid 200 and paid another 400 to see the flop along with the big blind who paid the extra 200.The pot was 1800 and the flop came J 7 4 with 2 diamonds.As the shortstack was desparate, his hand range was huge and I had to put the big blind (who only had to pay 200 to see the flop)on a wide range too.The sidepot was big enough for me to want to take my chances heads-up with the all in shorty so I bet half the pot,got Heads up and beat Q8 to a nice pot.The other guy was annoyed that I'd bet but I feel that when there's a large enough sidepot and the all in shorty is on a wide range then it can be worth trying to take it down.It also means if the big blind had a hand like AQ and had me beaten, then I take the pot with my KQ on the Jack high flop, rather than wait till I hit my Queen and get beaten by a better kicker.

At worst I lose the pot to mr all in and keep a shortstack in the sng and at best I win a nice pot.

I hope all that makes some sense and people can see that whilst it's not a play I would make everytime,it can be useful in the right situation.

3 Comments:

I always play a side pot when there are 3 in the pot with one all in. Some pros play a side pot when they know they will lose the main pot, they go into a hand ONLY for the side pot. If you can get the other player to fold, you only have 1 player to beat in the main pot also. I would rather lose the main pot to the all in player and play with 1 more person at the table short stacked than give the chips to a major competitor..

I've read super system as well and agree. Doyl plays poker like Doyle, Phil Ivey plays poker like Phil Ivey etc etc. It's impossible to try and copy somebodies style. Dan Harrington does fantastically well and he plays very very tightly, as is his nature. After reading super system i tried to play like Doyle for a while and lost a load, i did bettr when i was trying to play like myself..